Regulations aside, employee benefits management hasn’t changed much in several decades, so it’s notable that employers are beginning to use traditional marketing tactics to make sure their benefits efforts hit the mark for their employees. 

Case in point: HUB Workforce Persona Analysis.  It’s a smarter way to inform your benefits strategy, meeting employees where they are. If your organization isn’t taking steps to understand your population using audience segmentation, you should. (You can watch a video on Persona Analysis here.)

Analysis of workforce personas enables employers to design personalized experiences from multiple perspectives. Seeing benefits from different angles can make your benefits spend smarter, resulting in a return on investment 5% to 8% ahead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Just ask any consumer marketer and they nearly unanimously will tell you that personalization also deepens customer relationships.

So why can’t this approach also advance your employee relationships? It can, for organizations that stop to take the pulse of their workforce and apply what they learn to guide how we engage each other and nurture healthy employee cultures. These actions ultimately inform better benefits design, improved job performance, boosted impacts from leadership, and reduced employee churn.

Here's how to look at it;

As businesses expand beyond their borders, it can be a significant management challenge to structure an employee benefits program.

There’s the risk of failing to meet regulatory requirements or offering packages that are competitive in the United States, but aren’t appealing elsewhere, or are unnecessarily expensive.

In addition, acquired rights rules in most countries outside the U.S. make it difficult to rescind benefits after they’ve been offered, making it essential to get it right the first time.

What’s more, multinational employers need to devote sufficient management time and due diligence efforts to ensure that benefits are appropriately designed and cost-effectively delivered.

As companies continue to rebound from the pandemic, ongoing challenges — including staffing shortages, unpredictable demand, and rising supply costs — have businesses on the hunt for any advantage. Evaluating funding strategies for medical benefits programs may be a good place to start.

With employers offering richer benefits to employees as a recruitment and retention incentive, organizations are taking a hard look at the options available. Captive insurance can be an ideal solution for medical benefits, offering mid-sized companies across most industries the opportunity to control medical and pharmaceutical costs and design a more customized health plan.

Compared to companies offering traditional, fully insured plans, companies retain more control and transparency through participation in a medical captive. Employers may also save as much as 30% to 50% in total prescription costs through an actively managed pharmacy program. Overall healthcare expenses may also trend lower over time, creating a cost advantage over competitors and a benefit to the bottom line. However, participating in a benefits captive involves more work and oversight in exchange for plan flexibility and the chance to create healthcare savings.

Just as HR professionals quickly adapted to changes at the height of the pandemic, they must now adapt and respond to today’s evolving expectations of organizations and employees alike.

As such, savvy HR leaders and professionals will approach 2023 with human-centric strategies that holistically support and benefit workers. Organizations will benefit from putting people first and listening to what their people need.
 
Today we'll highlight six HR trends to follow in 2023.

On nearly the eve of its expiration, Congress has extended the ability of high deductible health plans (“HDHPs”) to offer first-dollar telehealth coverage through plan years beginning before January 1, 2025. This will allow participants receiving this coverage to continue to contribute to a health savings account (“HSA") for this purpose.

Separately, the agencies responsible for enforcing prescription drug reporting have issued good faith relief, an extension, and some additional flexibility in reporting.

Deciding how many HR professionals an organization needs to operate effectively is a hotly debated topic. Some organizations rely on metrics to guide them in making this decision.

One of the most common metrics organizations use when deciding whether to hire HR professionals is the HR-to-employee ratio. When properly analyzed, this ratio can aid employers in meeting their HR needs and benchmarking their organizations against others.

It can help employers determine not only how to fill their HR staffing needs, but also analyze how well their HR professionals are delivering on organizational goals.
 
Today we'll explain the HR-to-employee ratio, how organizations can use it, and what employers should consider when deciding whether to hire HR professionals.

Employers subject to Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting under Internal Revenue Code Sections 6055 or 6056 should prepare now to comply with reporting deadlines

in early 2023.

For the 2022 calendar year, covered employers must: a) furnish statements to individuals by March 2, 2023; and b) file returns with the IRS by Feb. 28, 2023 (or March 31, 2023, if filing electronically).

Penalties may apply if employers are subject to ACA reporting and fail to file returns and furnish statements by the applicable deadlines.
 
Note that while the annual deadline for furnishing statements to individuals is Jan. 31, the IRS finalized a 30-day automatic extension to the annual furnishing deadline. Thus, the deadline for furnishing statements to individuals for the 2022 calendar year is extended from Jan. 31, 2023, to March 2, 2023.

In addition, the IRS has provided an alternative to automatically furnishing statements to covered individuals in certain situations.

Emboldened by a strong labor market, employees find themselves in the driver's seat these days when it comes to demanding pay transparency. And with a growing list of jurisdictions now requiring employers to share compensation information, this trend shows no signs of slowing down.

In this post we will address the rules surrounding pay transparency across the country and workers’ growing demand for it. We will also discuss employer pros and cons, as well as strategies to implement pay transparency practices in an organization.

WHAT IS PAY TRANSPARENCY?

Pay transparency is when an employer openly communicates pay-related information through established practices to current or prospective employees. Employers can provide this information through various channels, such as online job sites, job postings, or during an interview.

Employers in Arizona may think they are immune to the nationwide surge in the enactment of Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) programs. Nevertheless, they may want to reconsider this as they review their overall benefits strategy. This is especially true because there are actions Arizona employers can take now to better adapt in the future.

From a national perspective, there are 13 states that either have or are implementing PFML programs, representing over 25% of the country where employers will need to participate in some fashion.

States with PFML, such as California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, all surround Arizona, and some of our neighbors, such as New Mexico, have tried to get a PFML law passed for the last few years.

With over a million ballots cast so far statewide, Arizona voters are already making their voices heard in the 2022 mid-term election. In addition to Arizona's more obvious races in the national spotlight, Arizona has a measure on the ballot that may also interest those living outside the state.
 
Known as Prop 209, this measure would reduce the maximum interest rate allowable on medical debt from 10% to 3% and expand the assets exempt from medical debt collectors.

If it passes, it may prompt other states to move in this direction, especially those more progressive states or those states with significant populations in medical debt.